TORONTO, Jan. 4 (UPI) -- Canadian doctors say radiation seed implants following breast lumpectomy might replace whole or partial irradiation.
A new study of patients with early-stage breast cancer centers on the use of permanent radiation implants -- similar to those used to treat prostate cancer -- which shortens radiation treatment time to one day.
Some studies have been done using temporary implants, where radiation sources are delivered through a catheter into the breast, usually twice a day for one week, and which involves about 10 treatments.
But the permanent implants -- about the size of a grain of rise -- would not have to be removed daily like the temporary variety, researchers said, but could deliver radiation to the breast area for a number of weeks until they were no longer radioactive.
"The main motivation was to see if we could reduce the burden of treatment for women suffering from early-stage breast cancer," said lead researcher Jean-Philippe Pignol of the Sunnybrook and Women's College Health Sciences Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
"The seed implants reduce the treatment to a one-time event compared to the current standard of daily treatments over many weeks. The seeds also reduce the amount of radiation the normal breast tissue receives, which lessens the chance of the patient developing problems that affect their post-cancer quality of life. The great thing is that the patient can go home right after the procedure and live a normal life while receiving her radiation," he said.
The study appears in the Jan. 1 issue of the International Journal of Radiation/Oncology/Biology/Physics.
